Rawrite and related programs
Information:
This directory contains the various RaWrite (or similar) programs I have found.
RaWrite and similar are "disk imaging" programs. This page is primarily for
floppy diskette image manipulation programs, however I will also include other
imaging programs (such as for hard drives) as I find them or people let me
know of them. [My goal is to maintain a comprehensive listing, or at least
a thorough enough one that people can find the right program for their needs.]
This does not include all possible versions; when possible sources are also here.
I have also seen a rawrite binary with a newer version than in any of these sources for rawrite.c
A disk image is a file which contains the full contents of the specified disk in a single file;
the contents are generally read as raw sectors so all data including partition information (FAT),
boot sector, along with actual directory entries and files are copied to the image. An image
file is specific to a particular format, so a 1.44MB image should be written to a 1.44MB floppy
diskette and 1.2MB image should be written to a 1.2MB floppy diskette. However, some programs
may support cross diskette writing (i.e. 1.2MB disk image to a 1.4MB disk drive) and hard drive
images can often (though really depends on what the used program supports) be written to hard
drives of the same or larger size [possibly adjusting data to resize partition and take advantage
of additional size]. A disk image is different from an archive [zip/arj/etc.] as it contains
a snapshot (or image) of the contents and does not differentiate between OS data (FAT/etc.) and
user data (particular files/directories/etc.); which are not generally accessible until written
back to a disk; and use different means to access the data bypassing the OS's filesystem layer;
also a diskimage will generally produce identical disk copies, whereas archives generally are
equivalent to copying the files to a new diskette.
[Note: I make no claim over the usability or compilability of any program
listed here. Some I have I tried, none have I compiled.]
Basic Usage (Rawrite):
Depending on the exact version, the output and command line support may vary, i.e. not work
Usage:
MS-DOS prompt> RAWRITE
and follow the prompts, -or-
MS-DOS prompt> RAWRITE [-f <file>] [-d <drive>] [-n(owait)] [-h(elp)]
where: -f <file> - name of disk image file
-d <drive> - diskette drive to use, must be A or B
-n - don't prompt for user to insert diskette
-h - print usage information to stdout
The diskette must be formatted or rawrite will not work.
The contents of the disk do not matter and will be overwritten.
When ran interactively (without command line options) you will be
prompted for the disk image filename (you must remember this as there is
no file chooser). You will also be prompted for the target/destination
drive, either A or B for A: or B: respectively.
Basic Usage (FDImage):
fdimage is an updated DOS program meant to replace rawrite. It does not require a pre-formatted floppy diskette.
FDIMAGE - Write disk image to floppy disk
Version 1.5 Copyright (c) 1996-7 Robert Nordier
Usage: fdimage [-dqsv] [-f size] [-r count] file drive
-d Debug mode
-f size Specify the floppy disk format by capacity, eg:
160K, 180K, 320K, 360K, 720K, 1.2M, 1.44M, 2.88M
-q Quick mode: don't format the disk
-r count Retry count for format/write operations
-s Single-sector I/O
-v Verbose
Recommended:
DskImage: OSPlus Disk Imager (read & write images) for DOS (works with NTXP)
or if you run Win32 then RawWriteWin is great. FreeDOS diskcopy is also
a good alternative.
For DOS:
- rawrite is just here for completeness, as it may be needed for someone.
- rawrite2 should be the fastest,
- rawrite3 should work if rawrite2 fails for some reason
- fdimage Write disk image to floppy disk (included with FreeBSD to supercede rawrite)
- dskcpy FreeDOS diskcopy with support for reading/writing disk images [rawwrite compatible or min size] http://www.imre.0catch.com/diskcopy/diskcopy.htm
- DskImage has a nice TUI (windowed text user interface with status) [read or write disk images] http://www.osplus.co.uk/
- fdvol seems like a good alternative to rawrite, found at http://www.cs.vu.nl/pub/minix/CD-ROM-2.0/
- WImage TP6 source Write Diskette to file / Read Diskette from file - Ver 1.21, part of FDFormat (for formating 1.68MB floppies under DOS) from Simtel, assume license matches FDFormat - free for personal and education use and can redistribute modified versions assuming properly documented as such
- xdisk (free for personal use only) Example program (dosutil\Xdisk.c) by Dave Dunfield for Micro-C/PC (see http://www.dunfield.com to obtain)
- sfx144 is a self-extractor stub for disk images to make them self writing (no rawrite needed)
- raread compliment to rawrite, this can be used to create disk images for use with rawrite
- Also have a look at http://sac-ftp.externet.hu/ in the utildisk section as there seems to be several disk image related utilities (especially in the 'D's), not sure about their license info.
- TODO: look into/for [from Extract's docs]:
- CopyVit from Sebastien Chatard
- DF (Disk Image File Utility) from Mark Vitt
- Super-DiskCopy from Super Software, SabDu from S.A. Berman
- Disk-RW from K. Hartnegg
For Windows:
Unix (and BeOS, QNX?) systems:
Use dd, which should be provided with your distribution. man dd for usage help. (FreeBSD (www.freebsd.org) dd sources included)
OS/2:
- loaddf (no source) SaveDskF.exe and LoadDskF.exe can read or write (respectively) images to floppies, http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/pub/os2/util/disk/loaddf.zip copyrighted IBM, YOU MUST AGREE TO included LICENSE.TXT before 1st use
- pmdcopy (no source) http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/pub/os2/util/disk/pmdcopy.zip copyright J.R.Shannon 20/5/93
- rawrite (no source) native OS/2 rawrite and raread binaries, http://www.tavi.co.uk/os2pages/rawrite.html
Apple (Apple II, MacOS, OS X):
- Someone who knows of any please let me know! Thanks. jeremyd@computer.org
Atari:
- file2dsk writes images to disk for Atari TOS (source, doc, executable)
Commercial:
(Trial versions, when available, can be found in trial\ subdirectory)
Please see contents of these archives for their usage (license information) and abide by them.
- Disk Copy Fast v5.3 DCF53.ZIP
see http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/dcf_hdcp/dcf.htm (Shareware, non-commercial $20, commercial $40 US, not sure if registration address/prices still correct)
DOS program. Powerful 1-pass diskette duplication utility. VERY fast. Support DMF, XDF, selected FDFORMAT, 800KB, MAC HD and standard formats. Support PS/2. Command line or menu driven; Hot keys for backup or multiple target; Mouse support; Format diskcopy diskcomp all in 1 pass; Use extended memory; Image file; On-line help
- DiskDupe
see http://www.msd1.com/floppy/ddinfo.htm (Lite version $29 US)
DOS and Windows 9x (does not work under NT)
Trial download form had errors, search for DiskDupe to find, 5.1 is latest version at this time.
- EZ-DiskCopy Pro v3.30g (DOS) ezcpypro.zip and WinDisKlone v98A (Win16) wdsklone.zip
see http://www.ezx.com/ezcp.htm (available for purchase but unsupported, single user edition $99.99 US)
see http://www.ezx.com/wdk.htm (available for purchase but unsupported, single user edition $49.99 US)
EZ-DiskCopy PRO: High Speed Professional Diskette Duplicator for DOS and Windows (DOS Compatibility Mode).
WinDisKlone: One-pass disk copy "machine" for Windows 95 & 3.1x (16bit).
- GRDuw
see http://www.grsoftware.net/disk/software/grduw.html (personal license $39 US)
Windows (95,98,Me) disk image software
Shareware version currently unavailable for download.
- NBL DiskDuplicator v1.9
see http://www.northbeachlabs.com/ (electronic upgrade $9.95 full $24.95, retail upgrade $14.95 full $34.95 US)
Windows program for reading/writing (duplicating) disks
Note: v1.2 classic version is also available for free, see above Windows section
- Undisker undisker11.exe
see http://www.undisker.com ($29 US)
Win32 with support for floppy disk images along with ISO and hard drive images
- WinImage 6.0 winima60.exe self extracting zip file (recommended)
see http://www.winimage.com (standard version currently $30 US)
WinImage for Win32 with many nice features including support for compressed images
and even ability to extract individual files from images
Partition Imagers:
- Partition Saving 2.40 (savepart.zip) DOS
see http://perso.club-internet.fr/guiboure/en/index_frame.html (free, no source)
Requires a 386+, 4+MB RAM, DOS (>= 3.3) boot disk with ability to write
to another location for saving the partition data.
- GNU Parted (parted-1.6.3.tar.gz) Linux
see http://www.gnu.org/software/parted/ (free with source under GNU GPL v2)
Requires Linux 2.0 or higher (using GNU libc 2.1 or higher) with libuuid, and for some optional portions GNU Readline, GNU gettext, and libreisefs
generally should be compiled for your system and/or placed on a boot disk that supports your hardware
(ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/parted/bootdisk/partboot.img)
- Partition Image (partimage-0.6.1.tar.bz2) Linux/Unix, available on boot disk and bootable CD
see http://www.partimage.org/index.php3 (free with source under GNU GPL v2)
and for downloading files see http://www.partimage.org/download.php3
"... saves partitions in many formats to an image file. The image file can be
compressed in the GZIP/BZIP2 formats to save disk space, and split into multiple
files to be copied on removable floppies (ZIP for example), ..."
Supported file systems include FAT16/32, HPFS, ReiserFS, ext2fs/ext3fs, NTFS, JFS, XFS, HFS, UFS
Only copies data from used portions of the partition (unlike dd)
- PowerQuest Drive Image 2002 (trial version available on their site) Win32/DOS
see http://www.powerquest.com/driveimage/ (single PC license $69.95 US, enterprise solutions also available)
Supports* Windows NT XP/2000/4, 95/98/Me, and DOS
(* older versions ran from DOS boot disks with Windows like GUI, current versions can also handle non-system partitions directly in Windows)
see also their Partition Magic product for resizing/creating/etc partitions
Others:
If your Platform is not listed here, then feel free to send me some
email with information about rawrite type programs (that are free to
use & distribute) for me to add here. Also please let me know if you
know of others or have any additional information to add to this
document. I will also include information on commercial programs and
trial versions if available.
Thank you.
Jeremy Davis
jeremyd@computer.org
(This document is public domain, the referenced programs are NOT.)
http://www.fdos.org/ripcord/rawrite/readme.html
20021107
Unless otherwise indicated ALL PROGRAMS here are provided
without warrenty and I take no responsibility for any
problems you have as a result of using them.